No money - no web presence?
In our working lives, there will always be clients who cannot and will not place 100% of the focus and the associated marketing budget on the web presence. And that's perfectly fine, because other business areas need to be supported and expanded more strongly. However, it is impossible to imagine life without one's own web presence, since a large part of our lives takes place in the digital environment. But does that mean that an inexpensive website has to be less modern or even user-unfriendly? In this blog post, I want to show that you can create cool designs even with little effort.
Our idea
![[Translate to English:] Konzeption](/fileadmin/_processed_/a/e/csm_0B1A4633_d548628d79.webp "[Translate to English:] Konzeption")
As tender documents and sales topics take up a large part of my daily work, I have often been able to take a look at contracts and budgets.
Of course, it did not escape my attention that some potential clients had a lower budget than others. At the latest in the cost calculation, it then quickly became clear that our foreseen services did not match the planned budget.
How you can still achieve a good result with a small budget: By means of expansion stages.
Time is your best friend
You've probably heard this sentence many times before. And no, it doesn't only apply to your financial planning.
Either we settle our affairs quickly with a lot of money, or we take our time instead. That is the core idea behind the expansion stages. From small to large, the web presence is expanded step by step - evolutionarily expanded from time to time, so to speak.
Starting with the first stage, we dedicate ourselves, for example, to a new TYPO3 version, modernise existing content elements, both visually and functionally, and optimise the main navigation. In this way, part of the requirements are already covered and the first launch can take place.
After a period defined by the client, further expansion stages are carried out in the same scheme, covering aspects such as lead generation, marketing automation, search engine optimization and TYPO3 training. The client can develop further depending on his financial status and a good agency at his side will provide helpful support. It is important to set precise goals in advance - this way nothing stands in the way of a rough roadmap from the start of the project.
6 clicks, 3 minutes
A lot of money and time actually always leads to the best possible result. But is that really true? I can design a fancy content element with 6 clicks in 3 minutes without immediately having to worry about the client's budget. And that's exactly why I'm writing this article: So that you too can banish the "lots-of-money-best-results-thought" from your mind ;)
So, if you're a designer, here are a few ingredients that will positively influence your design without demanding a lot of time and money:
1. TYPOGRAPHY AND COLOURS
Nothing works without them! Typography and colour influence the entire effect of your design. Keep up with current trends and put together a collection of modern, web-ready fonts and colours. Replace outdated fonts and colours with new ones and you will see how they turn the effect of your website around 180°.
2. Design-Boilerplate
With a little internal investment, you can quickly use this to your advantage in your customer projects. After all, what eats up more time than having to build all the standard elements from scratch every time? Create a boilerplate in which you collect all the basics for your design and prepare them for further processing. Be it font sizes, colour schemes, button styles, input fields and more.
3. Animations
Animations give the website a modern, high-quality character. Whether icons, buttons or boxes. With discreet shadow or wipe effects, you already achieve a high level of quality.
A low budget should not stop you from creating a decent website. You don't need ultra-elaborate elements or effects, because as the saying goes: less is usually more.
Time will help you reach your goals. Don't put yourself under unnecessary pressure and instead set fixed goals and work on them step by step, then you will be amazed at your result in a short time.
Anna Obermair
Mediadesign | in2code GmbH
anna.obermair@in2code.de
